


A Reflection

by TheAmuzing



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Update Fic, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 13:16:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4306518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAmuzing/pseuds/TheAmuzing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the revelations of Dave and Dirk's heart-to-heart, what exactly is a leftover half-Strider supposed to think?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Reflection

Well. That was heavy.

Cavalier understatements aside, you honestly do need time to process. That. All of it.

You wonder as an aside whether Dirk would’ve moderated his responses at all if he knew you were still connected to his shades. A quick calculation leaves you feeling skeptical: he hasn’t exactly been sparing with the anti-narcissistic defamations lately. Further analysis leaves you feeling that it’s for the best Dirk didn’t know—Dave needed the honesty.

The nagging question is: did you?

Petty self-absorption leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but denial isn’t your thing. You feel for Dave—really, more than you care to admit aloud. In another reality, you two may have been able to relate, if the other Strider had felt like opening up around you when (if?) he had the chance. It’s not like you’re unfamiliar with how suffocating it is to live subject to Dirk’s headwrong. From both ends.

(You wonder if Dave’s ever sincerely feared dying by his brother’s hand? If Bro ever made him feel like he wasn’t valid as a person?)

Given Dave’s choice to refer to his abuser as an uncaring “robot,” though, perhaps it’s doomed to wishful thinking. Even if you weren’t mashed up with an equine-inclined musclebound alien roboticist, Dave was unlikely to see you as a viable source for heart-to-hearts. Why settle for you when he could wait for the “real” Dirk to show up and call out?

(Or hug?)

(As it is, your prodigious STRENGTH would likely have snapped him in half.)

In all, the aftermath to this bevy of brotherhood leaves you in a familiar state of alienation. Always observing, never welcomed. Whatever. At least your other half gets that. Even if you’re never going to be good enough as a Strider, or a person, at least you can content yourself with being useful as a sprite. A brief glance through rabbit eyes gives you your deadline for Operation: Robro Cavalry, and you grin with crooked teeth.

Spider-girl may have a lot of obvious flaws, but she had one thing right:

You didn’t need to be a good person to be a hero.


End file.
